Young Writers Society

Welcome to Squills, the official news bulletin of the Young Writers Society! What will you find here? Tons of interesting news about YWS, feature articles about writing, art and the world of humanities, member interviews, shameless plugs and opinionated columns. And where will all of this come from? Not only from the staff but also from you! Yes, as long as your item can be labeled with any of the above mentioned articles and it answers to YWS standards, rules and regulations, you can post 'em here. Visit the Reader's Corner for more information and other Squills activities.

Creative Staff

NEW TABS: AN EXPERIMENT

Instead of eight tabs at the top of the regular YWS page, there are now eleven, featuring Books, Poetry, Shorts and the newly-labeled All Literary. The goal of this change, according to Nate, is to see if adding such tabs will boost reviewing in their respective areas.

Well, the results are in and they're... inconclusive. There was a slight bump (~10%) in reviews after the tabs were placed in, but it wasn't a big bump and so it's hard to say if the bump would've happened regardless of the tabs.

Nate said about the results of the change.


BOOKS aka NOVELS

As part of the new tabs, YWSers can now submit novels aka books for reviwing directly into the Books tab.


NEW LITERARY WORK POSTING COST
The cost to post a new literary work is lowered to 300 points, 200 points lesser than the prior cost. According to Nate, a single literary post is equivalent to two solid reviews in the Green Room, and three reviews otherwise. Doing the bare minimum to count as a review would be twelve reviews.

Read more...

YWS Design Contest Results!

Winners List
T-shirt Design ---> xXTheBlackSheepXx
Miscellaneous ---> Animal

Lauren wrote:As soon as we sort out a few things with the shop, items with these designs on them will be available for purchase! And all proceeds, of course, will go directly into running the YWS we all know and love.

To read the full article, go here.

On the Seat with Panda

We all know who our Featured Member is! It's EnchantedPanda! How did Panda achieve the prestigious title? Let's find out!

1.) Why do you think you became a featured member?
That's a tough one. Being the featured member came as a huge surprise to me. I never expected it to happen and even now it's still a massive shock. I think I found it so surprising because I didn't think that I did anything to really deserve being featured. If anything it was probably reviewing and being as active as I could in the YWS community, but it's hard to say. Very hard.

2.) What do you think are the activities one needs to accomplish to be featured?
Everyone gets featured for different things. Some people are great at reviewing, others are friendly and helpful towards new members and some people just try their best to get people involved with YWS and make it a busier and more lively place.

I don't think there's anything specific that you have to do to become featured. It's more about just trying your best to contribute. Almost anyone can get featured if they're willing to try and work hard towards making YWS a better place. My main advice for anyone who aims to be featured is to work hard and try and be a helpful as you can. These qualities will not go unnoticed.

3.) Since you're now featured, what will you do to be a role model for other members?
I'll probably take my own advice and try and become even more involved with the community. I'll try and do this by reviewing more, getting involved with YWS events (such as workshops and review days) and I'll also try and get better and more involved with greeting newer members and introducing them to the community.

4.) Have your works been featured, too? Why or why not?
Once. I wrote a poem many months ago and that got featured. I probably haven't got many featured works because I don't generally submit a lot of writing- usually just the odd poem and a couple of short stories. I think I could -potentially- get featured works again if I submitted more (and wrote a little better )

5.) Any final words for the YWSers?
Thanks for everything. There are so many incredible people on here, that it's beginning to become ridiculous. I can't believe what YWS has done for me and the people that make up YWS. This place is amazing. But most of all, you guys are amazing!

Wisdom, humility and gratitude! Wow! Now we know why Panda was featured! Stay tuned for more member interviews on the Seat.